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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24955264">Of Soulmates And The Unknown</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereTheRedStringConnects/pseuds/WhereTheRedStringConnects'>WhereTheRedStringConnects</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Emotional Hurt, F/M, Hurt Sokka, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Going to Hell, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Multi, No beta: we die like real men, Past Abuse, Protective Zuko (Avatar), Sad and Happy, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Sokka (Avatar) Needs a Hug, The Author Regrets Nothing, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, What Was I Thinking?, Why Did I Write This?, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:35:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,965</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24955264</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereTheRedStringConnects/pseuds/WhereTheRedStringConnects</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world with soul-marks and element bending anything is possible. Right?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>58</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Of Soulmates And The Unknown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Oh look I'm writing crappy fanfiction again only this time I'm doing it on here and not wattpad.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sokka was 7 when he learned he was a airbender. He was with his mother in their home, he remembers the look on her face when air shot from the palm hid hand. He remembers his excitement, Katara was the tribes only waterbender and she was loved for it. Maybe now the tribe could see he was just as good as her and stop treating him like nothing. His excitement didn't last long, only bending in private or with his mother. Two years later while she died in his arms to protect his sister, she made him promise to be very careful with who he trusted with the knowledge of his bending. Later that night he swore to himself he'd never bend again.</p><p>Sokka was 10 when he got his soulmark, beautiful red writing in a language he couldn't read with what looked like fire surrounding it. Sokka's a smark boy, he knew his mark represented someone of the Fire Nation. Of the people that took his mother away from him, that have almost wiped out his entire tribe. He also knows the last of his people will hate him for it, will mark him as a traitor for the mark he didn't chose. </p><p>So he doesn't tell anyone he got his mark, instead hides it away under his arm wrappings. He's wore them for most of his life so he knows no one will question him about it. Gran-Gran tells the thems how some people aren't born with soulmates, he decides that if anyone ever asks him about his he'll say he doesn't have one. It's a great plan he thinks. (He's wrong)</p><p>By the time he's 12 he doesn't want to live anymore. The other kids his age and even some of the adults are mean to him. Aways saying how he should be more like his sister or how he'll dosen't deserve to heir to the Southern Water Tribe. They call him a failure, and worthless when ever his father isn't around to hear it. Some of the older boys started physically hurting him years prior and he's so sick of it. Sure he's smaller then most of the boys and some of the girls. He's not good with words or at anything really (not yet). But he doesn't think he deserves this. </p><p>Katara is oblivious to all this of course, and he can't tell her or she'll just tell him to man up or something. So he holds it all in until one night he does something he can't take back. He takes his small dagger his father gave him and runs it over his soulmark, not enough to break the skin but enough to know he won't stop if he starts. Instead he runs it over his wrists, watching his blood trickle down his arm and into the white snow. And it helps, he knows he shouldn't but it helps so he does. He looks at his mark again, his beautiful red mark and he hates it. He hates it, he hates it, he hates it! After that night he could no longer see his mark, but instead a mess of cuts where it should be. This is the first night he sees the spirits.</p><p>His father and the rest of the men in his tribe older then 16 leaves to fight in war. Sokka is only 13, he has to stay back. His dad puts him in charge of keeping everyone safe, so that's what he does. While Katara plays with her stupid magic water he hunts with the other warriors in training. (The other kids still don't like him to much but he's the best hunter they've got so they go with it.) He builds his watch towers by himself and tries to teach the younger kids to be warriors, he doesn't get very far.</p><p>When he's 14 he over hears Potan (a slightly older boy) say he thinks Hakoda should just make Katara or someone else heir. The other kids he's talking to agrees. Sokka's not surprised by this and at this point he thinks their probably right. Still it hurts and he cries that night while adding more scars to his collection. </p><p>A year later they find Aang and begin their journey to stop the war. It takes everything in him not to tell Aang he's a airbender, he stopped acknowledging that part of him years ago and is to ashamed of himself to even think about it. He makes it clear that he doesn't think they should got to the Southern Air Temple from the start. Aang and Katara believe its because he just doesn't want to go off path, but really its because he doesn't want to see what the Fire Nation left of it. </p><p>He's long gotten used to the spirits that surround him, making friends with the ones who follow him and his friends. He never does tell Aang and his sister their there, he doesn't know why but he wants to keep them secret. Their always on the run from Zuko just barely escaping most times but they manage. When he meets Suki he can't help but think why couldn't she be his soulmate? She agrees to train him and he finds himself liking they way they fight (even in the dress and makeup.) </p><p>He hates when he has to leave her behind and wishes she could go with them. Along the way to the Nothen Water Tribe he gets captured by Fire Nation soldiers. He's beaten for information and he won't give it up, he escapes three days later to find Aang and Katara looking in the wrong places for him. He doesn't share his experience with them.</p><p>Princess Yue is beautiful and kind and so incredibly sweet. Sokka loves everything about her, but he knows shes not his soulmate, she's a Water Tribe princess and his mark is/was from the Fire Nation. Still he loves her with all his heart and they find that he is in fact her soulmate. It breaks him they way she cries when her mark (a boomerang in front of a moon) glows. She's engaged to someone else but she wants Sokka, she loves Sokka something he never thought was possible. </p><p>He shows her his scars, explains the mark he destroys every time it comes back. He waits for her to tell him he's a fool, to get angry at him for destroying something so special. But she never does, she hugs him and holds him while  he cries about everything he never let himself feel. And he thinks for once he could be happy again. So they plan to ask her father to reconsider this engagement, after all Sokka is technically a prince. They don't get that chance. Zhao's forces attack and Zuko takes Aang, they get him back of course (they always do.) </p><p>But the moon spirit dies, Sokka feels the life leave the fishes body. It's the first time he feels the death of a spirt, but it definitely won't be the last. Yue, his beautiful sweet princess gives her life to the moon spirit so the world is balanced once again. She dies in his arms and he feels her death too but also feels it give life back to the moon. He promises never to forget her, and she tells him she'll always be with him.</p><p>'Was she your soulmate?' Katara later asks, they've just left the North pole. They need to find someone to teach Aang earthbending. 'No, but I was hers.' He hates this world he thinks to himself, it's like nothing wants him to be happy.</p><p>Toph joins their group and they lose Appa, it takes them four weeks to get him back. Aang pretty much dies in Ba Sing Se but Katara brings him back to life and their once again off on their journey. The Day of Black Sun invasion fails and Sokka blames himself for it. His father gets captured along with everyone else except for Team Avatar and a few others. This only makes him hate himself more then he already did. So theres that. </p><p>Then theres Zuko. Zuko the Fire Prince who's been hunting them down for the past year trying to kill them. Yeah that Zuko. He claims to be good now and wants to help and train Aang. Sokka thinks this is a bad idea, a really bad idea and so does everyone else. So they turn him down. But then Combustion Man finds them and Zuko actually tries to help them and Sokka's pretty he almost dies (it was unclear). In the end Sokka hit him with his boomerang and kinda blows him up (ha! See boomerangs are a good weapon!)</p><p>So Zuko joins them and it isn't as bad as Sokka thought it'd be. Sokka later asks about where they keep war prisoners and it takes a few minutes but Zuko tells him. His spirit friends tell him it's a bad idea and he shouldn't go, but he has to. It's his fault their there in the first place and spirits be damned if he wasn't gonna go get them. Zuko of course sees though his whole 'I'm not gonna go after them lie' and is already waiting on Appa for him when he tries to sneak off. Sokka expects him to try and stop him from going he doesn't, not really anyway. </p><p>'This is a bad idea'<br/>'I know'<br/>'Its stupid, reckless and dangerous'<br/>'You can't stop me'<br/>'I'm not going to, but I'm coming with you' </p><p>Sokka stares at the firebender for a moment not sure if this is trick or not. But he's looking at Sokka in a way he doesn't recognize, a way he doesn't understand. Like he knows something Sokka doesn't. So he let's him come, well he didn't really have a choice but still. They take Zuko's bollon to get to the Boiling Rock Prison. It turns out the war prisoners aren't there but Suki is and now they have to find a way to escape. It takes few attempts but they finely figure it out and in that time Hakoda shows up. They just barely escape with the help of Mai (Zukos ex?) Sokkas not sure.</p><p>A few weeks later their staying at Zukos old beach house on Ember Island. The first night there he learns something important about himself. He's a Spirit Walker and he doesn't know how to feel about that, he doesn't even really know what that is to be honest. </p><p>Katara wants revenge on the man that killed their mother and Zuko is willing to help her get it. Aang tells her he believes she shouldn't kill him, that she should just leave it alone. He hates the man who took his mother sure, but he doesn't believe his sister should kill him, she 14! She doesn't need that on her shoulders. So Sokka agrees with the young Avatar and voices his opinion. 'Katara, she was my Mother too. But I think Aang might be right.' He regrets saying it the moment he sees the look in her eyes. 'Then you didn't love her the way I did.' He feels his heart break in his chest and he knows his hurt, his pain shows when he speaks only her name. 'Katara...'</p><p>He doesn't hear the rest, he doesn't see Zuko looking at him with worry in his eyes or thet way he glares at Katara for her words. He needs to leave, to be as far away from her as possible. So he runs and runs and runs until he can't no more. He finds himself in a small clearing, secluded and alone. He's pretty sure no one could find him here and he curls up in the grass. Its soft and comforting in a way. He can't focus on anything, his head is spinning and he feels his eyes begin to burn. How could she say that to him? How could she?</p><p>And for the first time since they found Aang, he puts his dagger to his wrists. He hates himself for it, for finally giving into his pain once again. But he long ago found that it help to feel this then the pain in his heart/soul. Sokka... Sokka please stop. He doesn't know the voice that speaks to him, he doesn't know where it came from. But its pleading for him to stop, like they could feel it as if it was their own pain. Everything will be alright, I promise. But I need you to stop... please Sokka. He doesn't want to listen to the new voice in his head, he doesn't want to think about what it means that he can hear someone in his mind. Non the less he puts his dagger away and cleans his wounds. </p><p>Ten minutes later he's walking back to his friends, he finds Aang and Suki looking for him. Toph claims that she thought he needed to be alone for a bit, so she didn't help. For that he's grateful, he knows it wouldn't have taken her more then five minutes to find him. And she was right he needed/wanted to be alone. He tells them that he's fine and that he just needed to clear his head. And they believe him, both Suki and Aang tell him their there for him if he ever needs it. He almost cries at that. </p><p>Later as he lays in his sleeping bag he looks to the moon and whispers a quiet apology for what he did. His spirit friends curl up around him while he falls asleep. Momo joins them tucking himself in the space between Sokka's neck and shoulders. </p><p>When Zuko and Katara return he finds himself glad to see the other boy. He won't meet his sister's eyes, not after what she said to him. Zuko is oddly quiet and when he looks at Sokka theres this hunted and sad look in his beautiful gold eyes. Theres something else that he can't place, its the same as the night they rescued his father and Suki. Only this time it looks a little bit stronger. Before he ask how the trip went Katara starts telling the whole story. Apparently she didn't kill the man (which Sokka thinks is a good thing) but on their way but she got her soulmark. </p><p>Shes beaming about it, telling them all about it as they walk to their camp fire. She's still talking about it when they reach the fire and Zuko lights it with a flick of his hand. Still though he doesn't say anything and kinda just looks to the ground and not at any of them. Sokka thinks this is odd and starts to worry for his friend. Part of him wants to go over and comfort him, but he doesn't know how. It hadn't taken long for Sokka to start having feelings for the firebender, he still doesn't know how he feels about that. And fight know he looks light something is really bothering him. </p><p>A few minutes later he hears Aang tell Katara that her mark (which shes been proudly showing off) matches his. This only fuels her excitement, it wasn't hard to tell the two had liked each other for months now. So the conversation stays on the topic of soulmates and Toph asks Sokka if he could describe hers to him. 'I know where it is and that I have it, I felt it when it first appeared.' So he does and she thanks him. Suki shows hers to everyone, its black and cold. Symboling that death had taken her soulmate from her. 'I never knew who it was, I just woke up oneday and it was black.' Sokka pulls the girl into his arms and tells her he's here for her, shes his bestfriend after all.</p><p>'What about you Zuko, do you have a soulmate?' Its Aang that asks, and Sokka sees how awkward it makes the fire prince. But he's kinda curious now to hear his answer too. Zuko nods then opens his mouth to speak 'I do, I um I've meet them too, their ah their pretty great.' He's looking at Sokka now, so he looks right back at him. He crocks his head slightly, confused as to why the older boy is looking at him. 'That's great Zuko!' Aang says grabbing Zukos attention, Zuko smiles at the young Avatar. Sokka stops playing much attention after that, instead he plays in the dirt with a stick he found. A small purple spirit attacking it as he moves it back and fourth. </p><p>Truth be told he wonders what it'd like to join the spirits in their world. It's not the first time he's thought about death, he's in the middle of a war and is very aware he could die any day now. He's not even sure if he'd go the the spirit world when he dies, he's not to concerned about it though. He just doesn't want to stay here, but he does. He's needed in this war and if he dies fighting for what he believes in then so be it. Maybe oneday he won't feel this way anymore, maybe when the war is over he can finally live a life worth living. </p><p>Part of him wishes his soulmate would want him after all this, but deep down he knows that's just not possible. Even if his soulmate is just a regular Fire Nation citizen and not one of the ones who want his people dead, they wouldn't want him. He's nothing, his tribe showed him that. They'd be disgusted by the thought of him, well that's what he believes anyway. </p><p>'Sokka have you met yours?'</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So like I'm not 100 percent sure if I'm gonna continue this, if you guys like it then I probably will (that's me hoping this actually gets read.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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